War on Drugs Policy

War on drugs
Name
Institution
War on Drugs
Ever since the 1970s, when President Nixon announced the war on Drugs, this subject continues to shape discussions on the criminal justice system in the United States. There have been claims of racial discrimination when it comes to the fight against drugs. However, it should not be forgotten that, it is the policies and not the system that sets the agenda when it comes to the war on drugs. The two main goals that drug policies aim to achieve when it comes to illegal drug use is to; control the supply of the banned substance and reduce the demand for illegal drugs among Americans.
To control the supply, interdiction policies have been established in a move meant to arrest drugs dealers and trafficker hence crippling the supply chain (Dunn, 2008, p.21). By doing this, the criminal justice system hopes to force the demand to be greater than the supply, hence forcing the sellers to hike up their prices. A result of this is unaffordability and subsequent unavailability of the said dugs especially to teenagers and individuals with lack of good finances. Also, by strengthening the policies on use and disbandment of prescription drugs, the system hopes to reduce the number of over-the-counter drugs that continue to be abused.
The other policy by the justice system is to continue strengthening existing and new criminal sanctions among users. To deter people from entering the world of drugs, the penalties for both possession and usage of drugs continue to be toughened. While this has caused uproar among the minority groups which claim that it discriminates against the black community, it has proofed to be effective. However, there have been calls to decrease penalties that have proofed to be in effective in the past. For instance, the debate of having different jail terms for possession of powder and crack cocaine led to the signing into law the Fair Sentencing Act by President O...